Rock & Roll Elopement Shoot Featured on Poptastic Bride!!!

I haven’t featured this shoot yet, since I knew it was scheduled to run sometime soon on Poptastic Bride and they wanted exclusivity.  So this might be your first look at it (unless you happened to see it on Facebook!). 🙂

Back in late May, Desiree of Penny Blooms Floral Design and Alyssa of Hybrid Photography and I met up for dinner.  Desiree had worked with us both and thought we’d get along well and wanted to introduce us.  Sure enough, it was as though we’d known each other forever – just like when I first met Desiree, we couldn’t stop chattering about projects we’d do together!!!

Alyssa was planning to have a booth at a bridal show in early July and wanted to style the booth after a shoot, so we started throwing around ideas. I have to admit that our first idea had to be put on hold, as our venue didn’t work out during the time period we needed, but we had so much fun creating this faux elopement!!!

I created the announcement (with a kind of graffiti-inspired vibe and lots of black!) and did a lot of the styling; Desiree did a ton of spray painting in addition to the florals (and you’ve never seen peonies like this!!); Ashley from Unbridled Beauty created a fun retro look with the makeup.  Unique Vintage, Pettiskirt Style, Whole Foods Hillcrest, and Serendipity Party Shop rounded out our look (the latter the night before the shoot – thanks ladies!!!) And of course Alyssa did a fantastic job with the photos!  Our models (especially our “bride”!) were troopers, as it happened to be an extremely cold June morning at Centennial Park!!!

My favorite element, I have to admit, was the snack cake “wedding cake.”  I’d been wanting to do something completely nontraditional for a while, and this was the perfect venue.  We used a drum (that happened to have pink flames on it!) that I’d purchased for my husband’s classroom at a thrift store topped with an old record, and three different types of snack cakes stacked precariously on top of each other (thanks to judicious use of toothpicks!).  I had waaaaay too much fun styling it!!!

Check out our whole feature on Poptastic Bride!

Rock & Roll Elopement Picnic Shoot Vendors:

• Location: Centennial Park, Coronado CA
• Photography: Hybrid Photography
• Styling and Stationery: Events by Elisa
• Styling and florals: Penny Blooms
• Hair and Makeup: Unbridled Beauty
• Dress: Unique Vintage
• Pettiskirts: Pettiskirt Style
• Straws: Serendipity Party Shop

What I’ve Been Up To Lately…

June was an extremely busy month for me (spilling into the first day of July).  I’ve got three more events happening in the next several weeks but I thought that on this beautiful holiday I might share a little taste of what I’ve been involved with over the last month!!!  Three styled shoots (including stationery for two) and two weddings (including programs for one and all the stationery for the other) meant a ton of work and very little time off.  But look at the gorgeous results!!!

I hope you have a fantastic holiday – I’m off to spend the day with friends and my husband.  Be safe!!!

Photo credits:

• Hybrid Photography
• Melissa Biador Photography
• Nicole Benitez Photography
• Porcelain Rose Productions
• We Heart Photography

Lynn’s Peter Rabbit Tea Party Baby Shower, 01*21*2012

This baby shower was a very special one for me to plan.  It was for a very special momma.  My friend Lynn, also known as the bridal half of Lynn + David, my very first clients!

Lynn’s sister in law Leita called me at the very beginning of January asking for my help planning Lynn’s shower for her baby boy.  Typically parties like these take 2-3 months to plan, but Leita gave me free reign to let my creativity run wild (within our very modest budget!).  My only words to go on were “Peter Rabbit” and “tea party.”  So I threw Lynn a Peter Rabbit Tea Party, of course! 🙂

Lynn and her family are British; they moved to the states when Lynn was quite young, but she still considers England “home.”  So I knew that the “tea” portion of the shower had to be spot on.  I contracted with Shakespeare’s Corner Shoppe to provide us with an authentic taste of the UK.  The provided us with delicious scones and tea sandwiches, and the three hosts provided lots of varieties of tea, cream, sugar, honey, and lemon.  I got a beautiful hand-painted Peter Rabbit cake from Sweeter by the Dozen Cakes and carrot-shaped cake pop favors from Calculated Whisk too!

Of course this was a small affair (with total decor and food budget of approximately $450), so we didn’t have a professional photographer or a big spread.  I’m going to have to start taking photography classes for things like this, but in the mean time I don’t want to not share an event just because my photography skills are sub-par.  After all, I’m a designer, not a photographer! 🙂  I just have to share the darling details with you, starting with our “MacGregor’s Garden.”  We had planned to hang Peter’s jacket above the hand-lettered garden sign, but had to move to Plan B when it didn’t work out:

And the buffet, complete with hand-lettered chalk signs (I love these so much – I wish I’d bought more when they were on sale at Michael’s because they were so cute!):

We used real mismatched serving plates, teacups, and silverware from my collection, which made the party feel more elegant and special than using paper cups and plastic silverware:

And of course no baby shower would be complete without sweets…  Specifically this gorgeous hand-painted cake (the fondant apparently didn’t like the rainy weather much, but you can see the detail that Jessica put into it!):

And the adorable cake pop favors!  I had a little too much fun cramming them into my wooden wheelbarrow like they were vegetables going to market:

This was one happy momma (despite my out of focus photography job…  yowch!)…  And back in February, she and David welcomed a healthy baby, Simon, into the world! <3!

Lynn’s Peter Rabbit Baby Shower Details:

• Planning: Events by Elisa
• Cake Pops: Calculated Whisk
• Cake: Sweeter by the Dozen Cakes
• Catering: UK Corner Shoppe

Any Ideas? – What Does the Honoree Really Like?

Forget for a minute that vintage-inspired weddings are “in.”  Forget that sweet tables are the hot thing, or that jewel tones are “so last year.”  What does your honoree like?  If you’re the bride and groom planning a wedding, what is your style?

My wedding cake table - Events by Elisa

I got married in 2008.  This was the very beginning of the mismatched table decor trend.  In fact, the first magazine article I saw mentioning putting flowers in various china vessels was published a month or two before my wedding in Martha Stewart Weddings.  But my husband and I – both avid swap meet goers, both in love with vintage looks, both more at home with mismatched and homespun than slick and modern (our house is a great example – we’ve furnished almost the entire thing secondhand) – decided early on in our planning process that we’d enjoy picking out vintage china pieces to fill with mismatched flowers and decorate our tables.  This theme – a whimsical vintage garden – was born when we first visited our venue (a vintage-themed restaurant) and was the perfect mixture of our taste with distinct, inexpensive details.

If you are more couture than campagne, a mismatched garden look is probably a mismatch for you.  Likewise, if I’m planning a birthday party for a 4-year-old-girl who is obsessed with monster trucks, I probably won’t be dressing her up as a princess (unless she’d like a princess-at-a-monster-truck-rally party, in which case I’m all for it!).  Trends are trends – but just as in fashion, if a trend doesn’t fit you, don’t wear it.  Skinny jeans or cutoffs may be in vogue, but I look like a tree stump in them – so I consistently choose long bootcuts.  Don’t reach for the “in” thing if it’s just not you.

Likewise, if a trend does happen to be you, don’t be afraid to embrace it.  You may remember my peacock bridal shower invitations.  What I didn’t say in the original post was that my friend, for whom I’m throwing the shower, originally wanted peacock feathers to be featured at her wedding.  But when she realized that they were a hot wedding trend, she decided against them.  She didn’t want to follow the crowd.  I understand and embrace the creative spirit – but no two parties are identical, even with the exact same printed materials.  Just because something has been done a hundred times doesn’t mean it’s not worth doing again – if the theme is something you love.

Photo from my website.

Inspiration: Vintage Rosebuds

I love me some vintage!   I was inspired by a bride I’ve been consulting with to create a vintage sweet table inspiration board.  I love the tones of blush and daffodil!  I only wish I’d been able to find some photos of flowers arranged the way I can see them in my head.  I’d love to gather ranunculus, peonies, daffodils, dahlias, gerberas, and freesia together in just the right messy way, and I’d love to see them in the gorgeous pale pink glass vase in my event rental catalog.

I’d also add a bunch of fairy lights and some chinese lanterns in pale pink, yellow, green, and white.

Vintage Sweet Table Inspiration Board - Events by Elisa

 

 

To use this inspiration board for a wedding, I’d definitely start with a wedding dress from Fancy New York, like this gorgeous “Maggie Rosebud” design:

Maggie Rosebud by Fancy New York

Beautiful!

Photo credits (clockwise, from top left): Ruffled Blog, Little Loveables, Country Living, Kate Landers Events, KristopherK’s Flickr Stream, Old Fashioned Lemonade, The Sweetest Occasion, Karen Tran Florals.

Inspiration: Born on the Fourth of July

I was at Disneyland on Tuesday (and, um, I’m going back tomorrow for a bachelorette party…  no, I didn’t plan it that way) and walking down Main Street U.S.A. started getting my creative juices going.  I created this inspiration board for an old-fashioned Fourth-of-July party that would also be appropriate for a summer birthday or wedding.  I can imagine serving a beautiful picnic lunch and making homemade ice cream in a vintage hand-crank ice cream maker (ok, actually, that would be really difficult, as cool as it would look!), and listening to a Barbershop Quartet or an old-fashioned band.   The perfect setting for this party would be a pretty green park – especially if there were a gazebo where you could hang the bunting!

Born on the Fourth of July Inspiration Board - Events by Elisa

Image credits (clockwise, from top left): Bliss Weddings Market, 4 In a Bar, Giggleberry Creations, Bouquet Bridal, Elizabeth Anne Designs, The Darling Bee, Jasperdo’s Flickr Stream, My Finer Consigner, North 60’s Flickr Stream, Events Wholesale, Pool and Patio.

Event Rentals for Clients!

I’m so pleased to announce the availability of rental products at rock-bottom prices for Events by Elisa clients!

Download the Events by Elisa Unique and Vintage Event Rental Catalog .pdf here!

I love adding vintage and other special elements to the events I design, and I know that it’s not always a smart option for the event host to purchase, care for, and store these elements.  I make it simple by finding great pieces (some beautiful, some functional) and offering them to my clients at excellent prices – typically a fraction of retail and other rental companies.  I don’t have a catalog that’s hundreds of pages long, but I do offer an excellent value for the pieces I have acquired.  And I’m constantly adding more.

Vintage Metal Candy Dish

Like this vintage metal candy dish.  Wouldn’t it look perfect on a sweet table?  It’s only $1.50 per day.

I also have some incredible finds for sale – like this awesome vintage photo album.  I have my heart set on selling it to a bride and groom for their photo guestbook at a vintage wedding – and it’s only $25!

Vintage Photo Album

These deals are only available to Events by Elisa clients and are subject to a separate rental contract.  E-mail me for more details!